Ryukyu Underground are 2 English guys who have moved to and subsequently fell in love with Okinawa, a chain of islands between Japan and Taiwan. Ethnically and culturally different to both their neighbouring Chinese and Japanese, traditional Okinawan music has a very distinct sound and singing style. Vocals are often sang by women with distinct guttural shouts (I don't know how best to describe them!) accompanied by shamisen and sometimes Okinawan taiko. Ryukyu Underground takes traditional Okinawan sounds and makes them dance-floor friendly. I was first introduced to them when junkie XL remixed one of their tracks.
This is their interpretation of a traditional folk song from Okinawa.
This is a more traditional version by Rimi Natsukawa.
Download the MP3 for Hana and other tracks by Ryukyu Underground at their site. The video (same as the youtube one above) for Hana is also available from their site as a quicktime .mov file.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment